Where's your website?

# 🌐 Where's your website? Source: [https://www.arscyni.cc/file/warez_your_website.html](https://www.arscyni.cc/file/warez_your_website.html) How to have a proper*small web*website within minutes; free, lightweight, easy\. ―Image: computer with a bread motherboard\. Source uncertain,‍\[[⇣](https://www.arscyni.cc/file/warez_your_website.html#sources)\]but undoubtedly a funny person\.## “Oh I use Instagram\.” There's so many people I've come across whose thoughts and creations I would consume with pleasure\. Yet most of them don't have their own blog/website and instead resort to the infinite scrolling slot machines whose plentiful issues and scandals require a distinct essay; 🔜\. Aside from all that, these sites are ugly, slow, soulless, and force readers to sign up\. No thanks\. Unrealistically but ideally one buys a domain name, codes their own site, and uses[Codeberg](https://codeberg.org/)and/or[statichost](https://www.statichost.eu/)to host it so that one ensures full control and safety of their content, e\.g\., easy migration if need be—[this is what I do](https://www.arscyni.cc/file/codeberg.html)\. However, considering how lazy/complacent/inept corporate social media has made the populace, or how scarce spare time is while working full\-time, or the frequency of poorly written documentation, then not making one's own website is understandable\. Below, three solutions\. None of themWix,Medium, norSubstack\. Read on if one wishes to trade in their excuses for a*small web*website that would run on a potato\.‍\[[⇣](https://www.arscyni.cc/file/warez_your_website.html#sources)\]A cozy cobweb that reflects your personality\. ## Free hosting options With the*small web*in mind I found these options, sorted according to a fickle preference: 1. [Mataroa\.blog](https://mataroa.blog/) 2. [Pagecord\.com](https://pagecord.com/) 3. [Bearblog\.dev](https://bearblog.dev/) [](https://www.arscyni.cc/file/media/mataroa-pagecord-bear.avif)―Image: side by side comparison ofMataroa,Pagecord, andBear\.I'm a bit disappointed because without hesitation I would use all of them had I not become accustomed to having full control of aesthetics and functionality of my own website\. However, a simple place to write is fine for most\. Below are the links to my quick example homepages with the same content, and some first impressions\. They all support[Markdownsyntax](https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/); to the non\-geeks, this simply means it's easy to create titles, embed images, create bold fonts, et cetera\. ### 🥇 Mataroa > “Naked blogging platform, for minimalists\.*Just write*\.” - Cost: free & $9/year - Features:[https://mataroa\.blog \> features](https://mataroa.blog/#:~:text=/%20example%20blog-,Features,-Never%20ads%2E%20Zero) - Example homepage:[https://arscynic\.mataroa\.blog](https://arscynic.mataroa.blog/) \+Mataroagets my preference because it natively supports comments, and while free, the price for premium is commendably hard to beat\. \- Annoying is that posts appear on the homepage by default, with large margins, and which cannot be disabled\. ### 🥈 Pagecord > “No lock\-in, no AI\*, no bloat\. Just your words, written your way, on your own corner of the web\.” - Cost: free & $39/year - Features:[https://pagecord\.com/\#features](https://pagecord.com/#features) - Example homepage:[https://arscynic\.pagecord\.com](https://arscynic.pagecord.com/) \+ OnPagecordone can natively click embedded images to enlarge them\. Another difference is that it's the only one that rendersYouTubevideos\. ± It's the most feature rich option, but also the least straightforward and slowest of the three\.†My gripe is thatPagecord's text editor immediately convertsMarkdownsyntax into its graphical representation within the text editor, which I find intolerable, but I'm sure others would prefer\. – – – \* “\[…\] The “no AI” means no AI features\. \[…\]” The developer usesClaudeto speed up the grunt work\. I reached out and there's zero malicious ambiguity present\. SinceLLMuse can be a deciding factor and is quite a divisive topic, I thought I'd mention it\. † Not to be interpreted as*not*straightforward, nor slow\. ### 🥉 Bear > “A privacy\-first, no\-nonsense, super\-fast blogging platform\. No trackers, no javascript, no stylesheets\. Just your words\.” - Cost: free & $49/year or $189 once - Features:[https://docs\.bearblog\.dev](https://docs.bearblog.dev/) - Example homepage:[https://arscynic\.bearblog\.dev](https://arscynic.bearblog.dev/) \+Bearhas the most straightforward user experience and its default homepage design pleases me on par and sometimes more thanPagecord's\. A surprisingly cool feature is that one can easily use an emoji or image as a favicon, and it natively supportsLaTeX—yay math\! An indirect featuredisadvantageofBearis that*free*accounts are hidden from search engines and its own discovery feed\.The former I find weird as it limits the reach of the*small web*andBear's own success\.The developer's response after reaching out: > “Free blogs can be unhidden from the discovery feed and search engines, they just need to go through a manual review process \(https://docs\.bearblog\.dev/not\-seeing\-your\-post/\)\. This is because 30% of all new blogs are spam, and it turns out that upgrading is a good filter, as is opting in for a review\.” ### Verdict One can't go wrong with any of them\. The medals above can be dismissed as ornamental\. ## Embedding images While uploading images to the above websites is supported, understandably a premium feature inPagecordandBear—[software is not free, consider paying](https://www.arscyni.cc/file/take_my_money.html)—I do suggest using a dedicated image hosting platform to simply embed its pictures instead\. Why? It takes a load of their back and chiropractors make for bad dentists\. [PixelUnion\.eu](https://pixelunion.eu/)is what I use, pay for, and strongly recommend\. It uses[Immich](https://immich.app/), which supports non\-destructive image cropping\! Moreover,PixelUnionis free below 15㎇ of storage\. How to embed an image hosted onPixelUnion?1. Create a public album, surf to its shared link yourself, left click on an image to open it, and now right click the image to select \`Copy Image Link\`\. The link/URL now copied should look like`https://YOUR\_USERNAME\.pixelunion\.eu/api/assets/11bf5d37\-8c5f\-4652\-a521\-8912d3048082/thumbnail?slug=YOUR\_GALLERY\_NAME&size=preview&c=msYJHIQrdmg%2BmXigaYp1kGoHqg%3D%3D&edited=true` 2. Use the followingMarkdownsyntax in the blog text editor:`\!\[image\_description\]\(the\_URL\_copied\_above\)` ## “Not worth sharing\.” Nonsense\. For the umpteenth time—unless posting food pics, then stay atInstagram—let this exquisite simulation of fireflies change your perspective:[https://ncase\.me/fireflies](https://ncase.me/fireflies/)\*\. Your ideas matter\. Just*make*something: ―Music video:ANOTHER IDEA\- Marc Rebillet\.– – – \* The ambient sound only works inChromium\-based browsers\. ## POSSE As opposed to governments—seriously 🤦—it's reluctantly understandable that some social media has become indispensable to a fair amount of one\-person projects to network and find an audience, but that doesn't mean having to hold oneself hostage to the greed\-driven whims of big corporations\. Now, with your own website, one can “**Publish \(on your\) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere**”\.‍\[[⇣](https://www.arscyni.cc/file/warez_your_website.html#sources)\]Create the original content on your own platform of choice and share*that*on all other social media\.POSSEreduces risk, increases agency, stimulates creativity, and makes happy the increasing amount of people sick of parasitic billionaires and their brain rot platforms\. Latest edit: 2 August 2026\.1. 2026\-08\-02: 1\. AddsFirefliesandANOTHER IDEA\. 2\. Adds footnote † toPagecord\. ⚜︎ ## Sources 1. The earliestTinEyetrace leads back to a Polish website[maluetar\.soup\.io](https://tineye.com/search/97e8adda52e79bf941aee569b0d33dd8c8a1a194?sort=crawl_date&order=asc&page=1)of a user named[Maluetar](https://www.touhou.pl/4um/index.php?action=profile;u=8), but the original page seems forever lost\. 2. - Vladimir Prelovac, Kagi\.com:[small web](https://blog.kagi.com/small-web)\. - Antony Lawn, The Paper Pilot:[small web](https://paperpilot.dev/garden/small-web)\. - Viktor Lofgren:[About Marginalia Search](https://about.marginalia-search.com/)\. 3. Indieweb\.org:[POSSE](https://indieweb.org/POSSE)\. ## Comment [⌂︎](https://www.arscyni.cc/)[≡](https://www.arscyni.cc/essay.html)[?](https://www.arscyni.cc/about.html)[€](https://www.arscyni.cc/support.html)☯︎